Skimmer Solutions?

[pmb_67]

Hi all,

Well, this is now my Nth post on the topic - I am having a complete nightmare trying to spec out a Rena Aqualife tank (150cm x 50cm x 70cm, 400+ litres) for a marine setup. Just about everything is fine on the whole, it's just getting a decent skimmer that's giving me a headache. I tried a TMC V2 600 but the first one dribbled over the floor and its replacement, though water-tight, was equally noisy. By which I mean too noisy for the wife to allow it to be in the living room. Which is where the tank is, so the skimmer really needs to be there unless I get drilling and pass some tubing through the wall

So, I took the plunge (and some advice off of this forum) and got myself a Tunze 9010 - but that didn't fit out of the box due to the design of the tank. So I just bought a spare collector cup from a 9020, but the elbow isn't long enough. This I can get round, but the main problem is the thing is still too noisy. Whoever said Tunze's were quiet, well you wanna come round here and tell me if you think this one is? Maybe I'll try load up an mp3 of it...

So, before I give up completely, throw out the salty water, pack the skimmer, Koralias and marine tubes away and set the thing up for freshwater, can anyone honestly recommend a QUIET skimmer for me? And I don't mean quiet by comparison with a 747 taking off at Heathrow, I mean something that can sit in the corner of the living room and not make me turn the TV volume up to ground-shaking levels to drown the thing out...

Please help!!!

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Colin_T]

all skimmers make some noise due to the air and water mixing. Internal skimmers are usually pretty quiet and so are power skimmers. It might be the pump is actually a dodgy one and making more noise than it should be. I have a Tunze skimmer and the pump is dead quiet.
What about running the tank without a skimmer and see how things go.

 

[timpetty]

I have no personal experience in this (yet) but I have read throughout this forum that skimmer sometimes need a "break-in" period. People seem to say that they quiet down after a few days of running.

 

[steelhealr]

Have you looked at Deltec's? Are AquaC's available over there? SH

 

[SkiFletch]

Well Paul, I believe the main issue here may be your definition of quiet? In my travels I've met plenty of folks who can't stand background noise. Perhaps you consider yourself to be just such a person? Any skimmer will make some modicum of background noise, physics demands that. If the noise you're talking about is a dull humm or slight sloshing sound, any skimmer will make that noise. If its a rattle, full on splashing, or choppy type noise, well that indicates a problem with the skimmer or its mounting scheme. About the only quality skimmer you haven't tried are the Deltec offerings. These are very good quality skimmers for sure and really would be the only ones left for you to try.

Worst comes to worst, are you sure you need a skimmer anyways? By that I mean, what livestock do you wish to keep that you think requires a skimmer? Might not be necessary for your tank.

 

[jeasko]

also have to say that the v2's always start off noisy and then get quieter, as im sure most people will tell you it takes a few weeks for the chemistry to settle and therefor the skimmer will take just as long, the only thing i found that helped was to box the skimmer in with foam for a few weeks until it settled then remove it as it will start to sweat inside the faom due to excess heat, now I find my pc makes way more noise than my skimmer.

 

[pmb_67]

all skimmers make some noise due to the air and water mixing. Internal skimmers are usually pretty quiet and so are power skimmers. It might be the pump is actually a dodgy one and making more noise than it should be. I have a Tunze skimmer and the pump is dead quiet.
What about running the tank without a skimmer and see how things go.

Not sure about running skimmer-free - will probably have too high a stocking density to make this satisfactory, I really don't fancy ultra-frequent massive water changes to keep the stats good. I guess I could try, but I don't want to find out it doesn't work and end up with a tank full of sick fish trying to swim through a nitrate-driven algae swamp

Any idea how to check the dodginess of the pump? Short of dismantling the skimmer and messing around with all the bits separately - which I guess would pretty much void any chance of returning it. I'm thinking of powering up the skimmer in a spare old tank out in the garage (will stay warm enough) to run it in for a week or two (timpetty, thanks for the tip!). Col, how's your skimmer mounted and what model is it? Mine's on one of the Tunze magnet bracket things - it's too tight a squeeze in the tank corner using the standard brackets. Just wondering if the magnet thing makes the set-up noisier?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[pmb_67]

Well Paul, I believe the main issue here may be your definition of quiet? In my travels I've met plenty of folks who can't stand background noise. Perhaps you consider yourself to be just such a person? Any skimmer will make some modicum of background noise, physics demands that. If the noise you're talking about is a dull humm or slight sloshing sound, any skimmer will make that noise. If its a rattle, full on splashing, or choppy type noise, well that indicates a problem with the skimmer or its mounting scheme. About the only quality skimmer you haven't tried are the Deltec offerings. These are very good quality skimmers for sure and really would be the only ones left for you to try.

Worst comes to worst, are you sure you need a skimmer anyways? By that I mean, what livestock do you wish to keep that you think requires a skimmer? Might not be necessary for your tank.

Hi SkiFletch, thanks for sticking with my skimmer troubles!

I am beginning to wonder if it is just me - thing is though, I am pretty noise-tolerant, particularly when it's something that benefits my fishes' health Two buts - one, even I think both skimmers too noisy to have on while doing pretty much anything else in the same room (other than hoovering, maybe!) and two, my wife is less noise-tolerant than I am. She's fine with the external filter (Rena XP2), Tunze "Nano Cleaner" and a pair of Koralia circulation pumps running - but the skimmer is like 10x noisier than that lot put together.

I did consider Deltec, but I don't really want a hang-on (MCE600, for example) and the internal (MC500) would be a really tight fit if it would go at all. And I'm a bit reluctant to shell out on yet another skimmer. Anyone after a barely-used, slightly run-in TMC V2 600, by the way?

Stocking - as per my other reply I'm looking at a fairly well-stocked (but not over-stocked, and built up nice and slow over a year or more) fish + clean-up crew only set-up, with about 40kg live rock in a ~420 litre (when empty) tank. Might add some "easier" low-light inverts at some point, but not too worried about that. So I *think* I need a skimmer...

Did think of another option actually - use a Tunze 9002 meant for nano tank / up to 200 litres - so I'd at least have some skimming going on but not overdo it and strip all the goodness out too Or maybe stick a pair of them in so I'd be covered capacity-wise and have redundancy in case I have one skimmer pack up. But maybe 2 skimmers is just inviting TOO MUCH NOISE!!!

Just had an idea - is anyone running a 300-600 litre marine/reef set-up in the London area that they wouldn't mind a complete stranger coming round to check out so I can see what the noise level's really like?!!!

Thanks again,

Paul

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, if you're not overstocking and you're not keeping sensetive hard corals, you dont really NEED a skimmer. I'd try a single 9002 and see how your tank gets on. Remember, every system is different and this skimmer may be the fit for you. If you wanna take a trip across the pond, you're always welcome to listen to my ~300 liter setup

 

[Colin_T]

Col, how's your skimmer mounted and what model is it? Mine's on one of the Tunze magnet bracket things - it's too tight a squeeze in the tank corner using the standard brackets. Just wondering if the magnet thing makes the set-up noisier?

Mine is a 2203 model and hangs on the inside of the tank with the standard mounting brackets. The magnets won't make it any louder.
I did find my model wasn't very efficient so I drilled a hole in the bottom of the pump housing and stuck a bit of pvc pipe through the hole and onto the intake of the pump. I have a prefilter sponge on the pipe and it works a lot better. The modification allows new tank water to be drawn in all the time. Before the modification the pump re-skims the same water over and over again. Poorly designed in that respect.